mercredi 30 avril 2008

I am afraid I didn't achieve all of them. But why ?The classical first answer is "I have so much to do". That's ture of course and last weeks were really tensed. But, of course, that's a wrong answer. It just mean that current assignements where not on my top priorities.

Let's have some guesses concerning why it was not top priorities.

Firstly, it is always hard to keep motivated through a long lasting course or project, and it is particularly true online where jumping from a point of interest to another is a rule.Secondly, to my point of view, those assignements are not really great challenges. Something is missing to give sufficient interest to this. Maybe, I should have given myself an additional constraint, but motivation was missing.Thirdly, an impression of repetition in all those assignements.And last, but not least, collaboration is missing, but this last point is hard to attain in such course.

Reading all this, I think this is a kind of first evaluation. But, it doesn't reflect my point of view concerning OER course. This was a great idea, and this is still.Some of the participant tried to develop links between us and maybe can we find some continuation.I just think, at this time, that the problem is a problem of rhythm.

jeudi 10 avril 2008

Concerning the organisation, one realize that behind an esay to use tool ((Media)wiki) there is a considerable organisation to get structured content. My own experience helped me to realize that this organistion in slightly diffreent between the different projects depending on people involved, their own priorities and level of structuration.

The other axis is organisation of content which is quite clear in an educational view :

This is definitely a sound organisation, but it needs quite a long explanation and a comparaison to real life that seems to be clear only to scholars.

Concerning impact, I think we all are convinced that this movement will help to increase access to culture, information and knowledge. We also hope tht it will get comparable impact than libre software to software industry.Will wikimedia be one of the organisations to foster this impact ? For the encyclopedy level, we're now sure. At teaching/learning level, there is still work to do, but experimentations like OER course will definitely constitute valuable experience for the future of Open Knowledge.

jeudi 27 mars 2008

Lessig's presentation explains us why law and technology combined may collapse our freedom. Digital Right Management (DRM) of music has more recently be another round showing that a small cup of copyright concerning the problem of copy oppose the public and the publishers.So if we take the time on thinking about it, we can be convinced of the necessity of "free culture". The problem is that I don't have the the same persuasion ability to convince my colleagues. And the reasons are multiple. I don't have enough time and all the arguments to counter the university culture, the management of research (the main occupation of many high school scholars), the protection and the recognition they are looking for.

So we need to convince them by using side arguments, and simplifying the main problems, getting them comfortable and giving recognition opportunity (forthemselves and their institution). License is of course a central point of discussion. An interesting initiative in my institution is the portal "Savoirs Partagés" (Shared knowledge or OpenCourseWare in english) where we can find explanation for different licences available giving simple, effective choice for the lecturer, giving him the opportunity to deliver its own course (with limited effort and appropriate license). More than philosophical reasons, we show them direct advantage of delivering free, open resources. And thereafter, we can begin discussion.One of my middle term goals is to convince some colleagues of this approach. The following step is to promote real cooperation on collaborative educational resources, but that's definitely a long term objective.

vendredi 21 mars 2008

Yes, the background of OER is rich.Denis Diderot (1713–1784) founded of the Encyclopédie, and speculated on free will is a kind of model for Jim Wales and Wikipedia.Free Adult education and Free software Foundation are models for delivering content available for all, enabling anybody to access to the knowledge.As

But, to me the idea of Wikiversity is even older. Giving the opportunity to meet people, exchange with other, increase his scholarship, through questions, and examining our own beliefs should encourage us to read the Socrates article.

In any case, as Luca noticed the reading of this background remind us the responsability of the teacher to educate, and give opportunity to everybody to exploit his own potential.